The Color Brown
by AishiteSubete
Summary: Katara is sold into slavery, and an old enemy is the one to purchase her. But is this old enemy really what he seems to be, or is he nothing but a misunderstood hero with good intentions?  Eventual Zutara
1. Chairo

Title: The Color Brown

Author: AishiteSubete

Rating: T

Summary: _Katara is captured by Earth Kingdom slave traders, and sold to an old enemy. But is this enemy what he seems to be, or is he nothing but a misunderstood hero? [Eventual Zutara.]_

**Chapter One: Chairo**

Brown isn't really her color.

It's not that it doesn't look good on her-no, it's not that at all-but it's that the brown of her dress almost matches the color of her darkened skin, blending in to her complexion, making her uncharacteristic color appear less spectacular than it really is. Despite that, the brown looks good with her cerulean eyes; because brown is the color of her skin, her eyes make her even more of a knockout than her well-shaped facial features and body already do.

After leaving his uncle in Ba Sing Se (not without support, mind you; the old man ran the city's best tea shop), Zuko the banished prince tried his hardest to avoid the war-torn slums and villages on the outskirts of the capital. Those tiny places were nothing but trouble. Substance abuse, slavery, and sex trafficking were all-too-common occurences and Zuko didn't want to be around any of them. But sometimes certain things can't be avoided, and that's how he ended up in the slum of Cha instead.

He kept walking on the main path, hoping to get outside of the village as quickly as he could. He passed a couple of teenagers exchanging opium and heard the sounds of dogfighting in the distance. Blanching, he quickened his pace. All he had to do was remember that he was on his way to capture the Avatar, on his way back to the more luxurious life he lived in the Fire Lord's palace. If he just got out of this dump, he would soon be to freedom...

Then he saw it.

It was a raised platform made of oak wood, a finely-dressed man in a purple yukata standing in front of a whole host of people in brown rags. The people in rags were chained, the shackles on their wrists like leashes tied to wooden pegs in front of them. The smile on the man's face was dirty and greedy as he adressed the crowd of socialites in front of him. He was a slave trader. Zuko's blood boiled dangerously; he hated slave traders. They violently plucked people out of their daily lives, and sold them to people who would treat them no better than animals. He watched, his eyes narrowed, as a small boy was led to the front of the platform, his eyes red and swollen from crying. "I want six-hundred thousand gold pieces for this one," he said in a boisterous voice that reeked of conceit. A slim woman in a pink furisode raised her hand in the air. "I've got six-hundred thousand gold pieces! Going once, going twice..." Silence. "Sold! To the lovely lady in pink." Holding a hefty burlap sack in her hand, the woman walked to the platform and handed it to the trader, leading the small boy out.

The trader looked behind him, and grabbed a chain from a peg, jerking on it roughly. A teenage girl lurched forward, almost falling to the ground, but regaining her balance in time to stand arrogantly at the edge of the platform, her cerulean eyes narrowed at the trader angrily. If it weren't for the brown rag dress that blended into her complexion, the girl would have looked exotic. Purpling bruises littered her eyes and jaws, trailing down her neck and arms; the trader had beaten her, clearly. That in itself made Zuko angry.

"This is a fine specimen we have here," the trader said proudly as Zuko watched the girl's eyes scan the crowd. She looked from the crowd on her right and slowly looked across the group until she reached his side-the left. In a split second, the two had made eye contact; the girl look horrified, appalled, as if she knew him. He, however, _did_ find her vaguely familiar. "She is sixteen years of age," the trader continued, "and very healthy. She has no medical issues. She _is_ a unique one; a _waterbender_." Zuko's eyebrows shot up; he knew this girl! It was the Avatar's woman! "The price for this one would normally be at one and a half million gold pieces, but since she's such a disrespectful _rebel_-" he pulled on her chain to accent his words, and she shuffled forward clumsily. "-the price has been knocked down to one million gold pieces. One million gold pieces for the waterbender! Any takers, any takers..."

A woman raised her hand for one million; a man soon raised his hand for one and a half million; a couple wagered together for three million; a large, old man raised his hand for five million. "I've got five million gold pieces...going once, going twice..."

"Ten million."

The crowd of socialites turned to look at him, and Zuko never realized that he had spoken until the trader said, "Ten million. Going once, twice, sold to the man with the scar." The banished prince stood, dumbfounded for a second, before he walked up to the platform where Katara was trying to wrench herself away from the iron grip of the chains. He grabbed Katara's hand, hoping to speak to her with his eyes. _I won't hurt you; I'm saving you_.

"Ahem." Zuko turned to face the trader. "The ten million pieces?" Zuko's smirk was decidedly wicked as he held out his hand towards the trader's face.

"I never had ten million pieces." The fire that engulfed the trader was vibrant and deadly, but it was Katara's scream that triggered the crowd into a frenzy. They scattered in every direction, praying that they wouldn't be the next ones to meet their ends by the hands of Zuko's fire. The banished prince turned to watch as many of the socialites ran from the scene and as some benders stood their ground to challenge him to a fight.

The Earthbenders in front of him stood in a tight-knit group, planning to attack him as a unit if he charged at them. But Zuko was smart enough to understand their idea just from their stance, and was smart enough that the quickest way to destroy them was to do it at once-instantaneously and unexpectedly. So he turned, facing the stunned-silent Katara, and grabbed both of her hands. "We're getting out of here." Then he glanced back at the small fleet of Earthbenders (all of whom were confused, waiting for the next attack), and his amber eyes ingited a blaze that swallowed them whole, leaving nothing but bones in its wake.

With a smirk, Zuko undid the chains that bound Katara to the wooden platform, holding her tightly so she wouldn't be able to waterbend against him. He took off in a run, the South Pole girl following behind him. They ran down the main path-the quickest way out-and escaped Cha about ten minutes before anyone arrived at the scene of the slave trade to see what had happened. They had escaped conviction, and were now on the run together from Ba Sing Se authorities.

Zuko had aniticpated a lot of things when he set out to search for the Avatar. He had expected it to be an easy job, had expected to come home shortly with much notoriety and fame. Years later, he discovered that it wasn't all he had dreamed. He had chased down a twelve-year-old kid and his gang, fled to Ba Sing Se like a refugee after he tried to thwart the plots of others to capture the Avatar, and now he's on the run as a criminal-as a _murder_-all because he decided to save the Avatar's girlfriend.

As he dashed through the forest, Katara's mouthy complaints of "what the hell?" registering in his mind like colorful, poignant punctuation marks, he realized that searching for the Avatar alone was going to be just like the rest of his life since his banishment-nothing like he anticipated.


	2. Muri na

Title: The Color Brown

Author: AishiteSubete

Rating: T

**Chapter 2: Muri na**

The two escapees stopped their running at the base of an old, majestic maple tree. They were about three miles outside of Cha by this time, unsure if they were being followed or not. Zuko leaned against the tree's trunk, his head tilted back, his heavy breathing exaggerating the rise and fall of his chest. Katara was on his left, bent over as she struggled to regain her breath, startled by the events of the last twenty minutes.

Katara was the first to speak, yet was still not the first to have recovered from the run. "Alright, what the hell," she gasped, looking at Zuko with suspicious eyes. "F-first off, why did you do that?"

"Do what?" Zuko looked over to Katara, his exhaustion evident on his features. "Rescue you? What was I supposed to do? Leave you there to be bought by some person who was going to treat you terribly in the future?" He took his weight from the tree and stood straight, facing Katara. She stared at him, perplexed.

"Well...yes," she said quietly. "We're _enemies_; you've been chasing Aang and I down for ages. I swear to God you've come close to killing me sometimes-" Her words stopped abruptly, as if a small cluster of puzzle pieces clicked together in her mind. "Oh, so _that's_ why. You weren't rescuing me at all-you just wanted a cheap shot at getting me dead! _Or _use me as a captive to make Aang give himself up." Her right leg shifted behind her, and she slowly shifted her weight into a battle stance. "If that's your plan, well-it isn't happening! I won't let it."

Zuko's shoulders dropped when he sighed, and he rubbed his temples with his middle and index fingers. _I think I've gotten myself into more trouble than I asked for_, he thought. _Hindsight _is_ always in twenty-twenty. If she's going to act like this, maybe I should have left her with the trader. _"No, it's not like that," Zuko said, his voice pleading for her to listen. "I hate the slave trade; I would have done for anybody what I did for you."

"Then what about Mako, the little boy that was the first to get sold?" she asked with venom. Zuko vaguely remembered the image of the short, grief-stricken boy who had been bought by a woman in a pink furisode. "What about _him_?" Zuko was speechless; he could have lied easily and said he hadn't seen Mako get sold, but what good would that have done him?

"I'm...I'm sorry," Zuko choked out. "I was shocked and I...wasn't sure what the best course of action would be. I wish I _had_ acted sooner, to save him." Katara lowered her arms, relaxing her stance. The banished prince looked up at her hopefully, but let that face fall when he saw the suspicion that still lingered in her eyes.

"I have to go." Katara turned and looked back towards Cha. "I got captured about fifteen miles southwest of Cha. If I go back there, I can re-trace my steps and make my way back to where I was separated from Aang." Zuko's head shot up, staring at her wide-eyed with panic.

"You can't," he explained. "They're going to be looking for you-the Dai Li, I mean. Once you get into Cha, you'll never make it past one of those fifteen miles southwest." Katara quirked an eyebrow, as if to say, "since when do you care what happens to me?" The prince sighed in aggravation, and held out his open palm, a flame hovering about it dangerously. "I'm not letting you go. If you want to try to fight your way out, then try it. You don't have any water near you; it'd be best just to listen to me."

Katara looked at him, amused. "Oh really? You're not going to stop me." As she turned to go back towards Cha, a pair of scorching hands grabbed her wrists, causing her to cry out in shock.

"You're not returning to Cha; not without me."

His chin was on her shoulder, his lips whispering the orders into her ear. Katara stiffened, the hair on the back of her neck bristling as Zuko continued his speech. "You have no way of fighting, and they will kill you." As his hands tightened on her wrists, her own clenched fists drew themselves into tighter knots. Katara gritted her teeth, preparing to snap back at Zuko when there was a rustling in the bushes that neither of them had expected.

"I heard voices over there."

Zuko loosened his grip on Katara, and the two looked at each other, panicked; it was the Dai Li. The prince turned, his hands still on Katara's wrists, and ran back towards the maple, dragging her with him. "In the tree!" He let go of her hands so he could hold his own in front of him, to where she could use his intewoven fingers as the first rung of a ladder to reach the lowest tree branch. She jumped into his hands, spending no less than a few seconds balanced there before she lept gracefully to the branch, holding out her hand to assist Zuko as he jumped onto the branch beside her. Fervoredly, they climbed higher in the tree, masked from the Dai Li by ruby, fall-time leaves. Zuko pressed his finger to his lips to indicate to Katara to stay silent as the Earth King's policemen walked under them.

"Are you sure you heard voices?" This Dai Li agent was tall, a long, black braid running from the nape of his neck to the bend of his knees. His coal eyes looked at the two men behind him with apparent contempt. "Because I see no one here." He turned to his agents, shifting his weight onto his right leg and crossing his arms. "Well?"

A more timid-looking Dai Li agent with a tanned face littered with scars cast his glance to the ground. "I-I'm sorry, Master Shi," he muttered helplessly. "I _thought_ I heard voices..."

Master Shi rolled his eyes, turning on his heel, walking back towards Cha. "Come. We're going back to look for the waterbender slave and the scarred man. When they are found...they will be shown no mercy." Master Shi stomped the ground furiously, and a sharp, jagged jet of earth lept from the mud underneath his feet. With a grunt, he led his agents from the scene of the majestic maple with the grace and elegance that only a high-ranking official with many years of praise could possess. When the Dai Li had cleared the area, Zuko and Katara hopped from the tree, staring at the jet of earth that had come so close to striking the maple they had been sitting in.

"They're more serious than I gave them credit for," Katara mumbled under her breath, almost inaudibly. Zuko heard it, though.

"You think you can take them?" Zuko inquired with an amused, raised eyebrow. He was on the borderline of laughing when Katara looked at him with abashed eyes and pouty lips.

"If I had my water flask I could!" she stated arrogantly, folding her arms and turning away from him. "If anything, I could at least get away from the likes of _you_." Zuko scowled; after all he had done to save her from the trader _and_ from the Dai Li, _this_ was the thanks she gave him. He took three long strides in her direction, towering over her by several inches when he stood face-to-face with her, mere centimeters away.

"Katara-" he said her name low, like a growl, "-I have a proposition for you. I rescued you all of forty minutes ago, and you're _already_ becoming a thorn in my side. Here's the deal: take me to the Avatar, and I'll not only let you guys get a head-start on me, I'll also not turn you in to the Dai Li. Think about the sheer _pain_ little Avatar Aang would feel when he hears the news that his little waterbender was executed for murder."

The waterbender could feel the heat of Zuko's temper radiating off of him, and she couldn't lie; she was afraid. She had no water, no methods of fighting him off if he decided to attack. She swallowed the lump of fear rising in her throat, and parted her lips to speak. "Alright." She said, her words barely a whisper. "I'll take you to my friends. Only if you give us that head start you promised, and also allow me a water flask. I won't let you fight off any enemies alone."

Zuko took a step back from her, giving them space to breath fresh, fall air that wasn't muddled by heat. "It sounds good to me." He looked up to the sky. "We're going to go to a bigger town now to gather some provisions and disguise ourselves. Mu Cai is five miles west of here; we should be able to get there in good time if we walked." Katara nodded and watched as Zuko took a few steps off of the main path, walking through the assorted trees and underbrush. Katara followed behind, wondering if she had just made the worst mistake of her life.


	3. Mu Cai

Title: The Color Brown

Author: AishiteSubete

Rating: T

**Chapter Three: Ki**

Mu Cai was not as large and specatular as Ba Sing Se, but was not as small and run-down as Cha. It was somewhere in the middle, and was arguably the perfect size for a city. Zuko and Katara were able to blend into the crowd easily with the muted colors of their clothing, strolling unnoticed amongst Earth Kingdom natives and refugees.

The main street of the city was flowing at a moderate pace; there weren't too many people at the markets, nor was the place deserted. Katara felt an overwhelming sense of calm as she paced the streets, almost unaware of Zuko by her side until he tapped her arm. She jumped a little, and threw a dirty glance at him, which the firebender casually ignored. "There's a clothing stall a little ways down; we should disguise ourselves." Katara nodded, her cerulean gaze lingering on his characteristic scar. "I can use bandages," he murmured, noticing her gaze. "It might decrease my eyesight, but it'll definitely keep people off of our backs."

The duo walked to the stall, where the old woman who ran it allowed them to browse her wares without question. They searched through racks of clothes and Katara pulled out a soft, brown martial artist's dress. She held it up for Zuko to see. "Would this be disguising enough?" He turned in her direction and studied the brown dress carefully, thoughtfully. He compared how she looked in the dirty, brown dress she wore now and to how she looked when she wore the vibrant blue tunics of the Water Tribe. Brown most certainly wasn't her color.

"It'd be better if it wasn't in brown," he said simply, turning to look through a collection of antique-looking vests. "Try green." Katara quirked aneyebrow, and when Zuko didn't take notice of the action, she shrugged and turned back to browsing through martial artist dresses.

Less than half an hour later, Zuko and Katara emerged from the clothing stall looking unlike Zuko and Katara. The waterbender's hair, which was usually tied back in a bun and long braid, flowed freely down her back like a waterfall of cocoa. She wore a sleeveless, green martial artist's dress (by Zuko's suggestion) with a green-white sash around her waist and brown pants keeping her legs modestly covered. Bandages covered what was left visible of her legs from her mid-thigh to her ankle, and her deeply tanned toes were open to the air in sandals. Zuko, however, did nothing to alter his hair; the half of his face that carried his scar was covered by white linen bandages, the right side of his face being all that could be clearly seen. He wore a light green undershirt covered by a grass-green vest, majestic green earthbender-style pants and sandals adorning his lower half. Looking very much unlike themselves, Zuko and Katara were prepared to set out from Mu Cai to anywhere.

Zuko and Katara walked from the old woman's clothing stall back up main street, buying various fruits and vegetables for their upcoming journey. The pair weren't given any strange looks; they weren't treated any different than the other townspeople, and it seemed as though nobody knew that they were not who they appeared to be. As Katara looked through a cart of cabbages, Zuko crossed the street to look at a various assortment of mangos. The waterbender pored over the vegetables, all of which looked okay but not entirely perfect;  
>only a little over half of them looked edible.<em> For a town like Mu Cai<em>, Katara thought dryly, _shouldn't they have better produce?_

It was then that a strange, forceful hand that felt oddly like smooth stone closed around Katara's wrist. The first thought that went off in Katara's mind was _earthbender; Dai Li_ and she whirled around to face whoever had approached her. He was a young man, perhaps in his late teens, who was wearing a Dai Li uniform, just as Katara had guessed. But unlike the other agents she had had the displeasure of meeting, this boy looked somewhat _pleasant_. His eyes were warm, and his chestnut brown hair was pulled up in a topknot adorned by a jade ring. "Pardon me, ma'am; I am Agent Hui. The Dai Li are investigating a multiple homicide in the nearby village of Cha. We're looking for two suspects-a man with a scar on his face, and a young woman who can waterbend. Have you seen either of them?"

"No, sir," Katara said smoothly, shocking herself at the ease and lack of hesitancy with which she could lie so bluntly. She bit her lip, feigning worry. "I do hope the families of those killed are doing alright; maybe you can catch the perpetrators soon." Hui smiled at her genuine worry (or what he thought was genuine) and Katara smiled inwardly.

"I hope the families are doing alright, as well," Hui agreed. He leaned in closer to Katara, "But between you and I, I think that one of those men-the one whose body was actually identifiable, his name was Tanxin-deserved what he got. Call me naive, sure, but I might reward someone who got rid of him." He straightened up a little, adding distance between himself and Katara. "Tanxin was already a criminal; he was on the Dai Li's list of most-wanted slave traders. We were hoping to have caught him, but I guess these murderers took  
>care of it for us. We've rounded up all of the slaves and helped them return to their families, with the exception of a small boy named Mako; we're still looking for him."<p>

Katara nodded in understanding, feeling a pang of sympathy for the little boy she had befriended when they were in captivity together. "I hope you find little Mako. I'm sure his  
>parents are dreadfully worried."<p>

"We have a group of agents assigned to tracking him down," Hui explained. "Once we're able to put identities with the charred skeletons we found, it would make our job easier. Not many non-benders take part in the slave trade." Katara nodded once more to show that she got what he was saying. "Oh, and what is your name, madam?"

Katara giggled, and even she noticed how uncharacteristic it was. "My given name is Zhen, but my family name is Xue. I'm Xue Zhen."

"Xue Zhen, eh?" Hui smiled. "That's not a common name around these parts; I take it you're not from around here?"

"I'm from Whaletail Island, natively," Katara lied easily. "I know, I know, Xue isn't a common family name in the Earth Kingdom, but my father was descended from a Southern Water Tribe man somewhere far back in his ancestry. He wasn't a bender or anything, but it would have been cool if he had been. That man moved to the Earth Kingdom and married a woman from there, and let's just say there hasn't been any interracial mixing since." Katara laughed, and Hui laughed with her.

"I understand how that is," Hui laughed. "Well, not entirely. I'm Hui Meng." Katara grinned. "No interracial mixing in my family tree, as sad as that is. It would definitely make for a more exciting geneology."

"It's good to meet you, Hui Meng," she held out her hand, and Hui took it.

"I can say the same to you, Xue Zhen." The two shook hands, smiling at each other all the while.

"Is there a problem, agent?"

Katara turned her head around to look at Zuko, who was glaring at Hui with his uncovered eye. The waterbender could tell that his heart was beating a mile a minute; he leaves for one second, and comes back to find the hand of the woman he risked so much to save in that of a Dai Li agent's. She knew he was worried that she was being captured. Katara easily slid her hand away from Hui's gentle grasp, and turned back to Zuko.

"No problem at all, sir," Hui said, his tone portraying a degree of shock atZuko's sudden arrival. "Might I ask your name?"

"I'm Jie Li," Zuko said, his voice almost taking a notch of pride as he spoke the words. His family name-hero. His given name-power. They were words that could make anyone sound a little more confident when spoken, and Katara almost rolled her eyes at the name Zuko had chosen for himself.

"Pleasure to meet you," Hui said, also extending his hand towards Zuko, who shook it with a tighet grip than needed. "I'm Dai Li agent Hui Meng. As I was telling miss Xue Zhen, we're searching for two criminals charged with multiple homicide who are on the run-a man with a scar and a waterbender."

"I assure you, my girlfriend and I haven't seen the likes of them around here." Zuko put a protective arm around Katara's shoulders, and she forced herself not to bristle at the contact. Hui watched Zuko place his arm around Katara, and his eyes seemed to narrow, as if he had slowly began to feelaffection for the waterbender during his conversation with her.

"I see then," Hui said simply, flatly. "In that case, I'll leave you two to the remainder of your shopping." He turned on a heel, and began walking back down main street. "It was a pleasure talking to you, Xue Zhen-and it was nice to meet you as well, Jie Li." In a few moments, Hui Meng walked out of sight and became lost in the crowd of townspeople. Once he was entirely gone, Zuko removed his hand from Katara's shoulders and looked at her questioningly.

"Xue Zhen?" He asked, lifting an eyebrow. Katara rolled her eyes.

"I could ask the same of you; Jie Li?" She smirked slightly when he pouted. "And what was with the whole girlfriend stuff?" Zuko shrugged, looking through the cabbages that Katara had been examining prior to Hui's arrival.

"Trying to make the reason I popped up a little more convincing," Zuko shrugged."Or I could have just said, yeah, she's my partner in crime, and we're the ones you're looking for in that multiple homicide. Would you rather me have done that?" Katara scowled deeply. "I didn't think so." The brunette sighed, took a cabbage from the cart, and paid the vendor with a copper  
>piece. The pair continued up main street, heading back in the direction of the slum village of Cha.<p>

"Our only option is to retrace our steps," Zuko said, a hint of worry in his voice. "We'll go back to Cha, and from there, you'll navigate fifteen miles southwest so we can get you back to the Avatar. Alright?" Katara nodded aimlessly, following Zuko back on the main path to Cha. The clouds in the sky were gray and filled with rain. For the firebender and waterbender-the human personifications of total opposites-they paid it little mind, worrying only about whether or not they'd make it back to Cha before the rainfall began. But for those with more analytical minds, or for those who believe in omens and foreshadowing, this was much more than the promise of the storm-it was the possibility of disaster.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well! I hope you're enjoying _The Color Brown_ thus far! Trust me, it's a real pleasure to write!**

**I used a LOT of names in this chapter, so I think it'd be best to explain them.**

**Katara: Katara's disguise name is Xue Zhen. "Xue," her family name, is Chinese for "snow." I chose this surname for her because she is a native of the Water Tribes, places that get a lot of snow. This can also explain the mixed race ancestry that she made up. "Zhen," her given name, is Chinese for "precious" or "treasure." I chose this given name for her because I read once that in a comic version of ATLA, "Katara" was accidentally printed as "Takara," the Japanese word for "treasure." So I thought that it fit well.**

**Zuko: I know, I know: his refugee name is written as "Lee," not "Li." But to stick with the more Chinese naming theme that I have going, I decided to change it from something of a more Korean origin to one of a Chinese origin. Zuko's disguise name is Jie Li. "Jie," his family name, is Chinese for "hero." I chose this surname for her because he is pretty much like the story's hero: he comes in and "buys" Katara when she's about to be sold away as a slave. "Li," his given name, is Chinese for "power." I pretty much chose this name because it was what was already given to him.**

**My OC: Hui Meng is my favorite OC for this chapter that I pretty much came up with off of the fly-and fell in love with. His family name, "Hui," is traditionally a female name, and is Chinese for "kindness." His given name, "Meng," is traditionally a male name, and is Chinese for "ferocity" or "viciousness." Here is some family history on his given name that may or may not be put in later chapters: Hui Meng is the only son in his generation of the Hui family, having five sisters. His parents always wanted a strong son, so when they finally had a male child, they named him "Meng" in hopes that his name would rub off on him. Because of that (and because his parents told him this), he has had conflicting emotions as a Dai Li agent concerning doing what is right by his career, or what is right by humanity.**

**Also, I gave a name to the slave trader from chapter one: Tanxin. When I introduced this character for his brief appearance, I described him as a "greedy, dirty man" and named him Tanxin, which is Chinese for "greedy."**

**I've had some computer issues with this chapter, so I hope that the formatting isn't entirely screwed up.**

**Love you all bunches! Review!  
><strong>


	4. Tomodachi ka?

Title: The Color Brown

Author: AishiteSubete

Rating: T

**Chapter Four: Tomodachi ka?**

The main path from Mu Cai to Cha was a straight line on a flat plain. There was barely any change in the scenery of tall, firm-standing trees no matter how far you walked. You couldn't tell where you were by landmarks unless you made them yourself, nor could you tell by your surroundings how much farther you had to walk until you reached Cha because there was no change in the area. Katara felt as though they would be walking forever and would never reach their destination.

Silence existed between the firebender and the waterbender; neither party was willing to speak to the other, their past interfering with the present. Though they walked side by side, they barely looked as if they were traveling partners. There was not even an ounce of friendship that could be seen between the two.

However, though, there wasn't a sense of hatred; no, that didn't exist. It wasn't as though they despised each other, but it wasn't as though they loved each other, either. They walked along in silence, their attitudes towards each other appearing completely neutral to the random passerby—if there were any passerbyes on this street. The last person Zuko and Katara had met on their departure from Mu Cai was a small child two miles back who was running so anxiously that he paid the two travelers no mind.

Thunder rumbled overhead, and both Zuko and Katara looked to the skies. _Drip, drip, drip_… The rain started to fall in slow, small drops. Soon, though the drops grew in size, frequency, and speed until the two benders were stuck in a torrential downpour. Katara, looking vaguely annoyed but not as upset as Zuko, simply raised her hands over her head, blocking the rain from touching herself and the firebender. Zuko looked at her with a cautious eye.

"What if someone sees you?" he asked her as if it were question enough. He knew she understood why it was asked; the Dai Li were frantically searching for a waterbender—more specifically, they were searching for an unnamed Katara. Her casual use of her bending ability worried Zuko; did she even think about that?

"There hasn't been anyone around here for the last two miles," Katara said matter-of-factly, still holding her hands high to shield them from the rain. "I really doubt we're going to see anymore, even when we get closer to Cha. You don't need to worry about it."

Zuko could tell that he wasn't going to be able to win this battle; Katara was bending for what was probably the first time in many days; she was starved from her bending, and most likely needed it like food or water. Part of him wanted to make her stop, just for their general safety, but another part of him—the part that won, ultimately—advised him to let her continue bending, because her spirit depended upon it.

They walked another mile before Katara's hands suddenly flew down to her sides, her bending shield utterly destroyed. The waterbender grabbed Zuko's wrist, pulling him over to the dry shade of an oak tree. "There's someone coming," she informed him. "Let's keep hidden."

The two benders watched from the bushes as a young man emerged from the forest opposite them and onto the main path. His hair was long—longer than Katara had ever seen on a man since that Dai Li agent, Shi—straight, and silky-smooth looking. It caught the gleam of the afternoon sunlight as he walked, his hair accenting his graceful strides. His features were handsome, his skin tanned, and his eyes the brightest shade of jade green that the benders had ever seen on a human being. He was walking around in the rain in thin, brown pants and an even thinner brown undershirt, almost as though he was dancing in it.

It was about that time that the boy looked over, and noticed Katara and Zuko sitting under the shade of a tree. His interest was piqued—there was no doubt about that—and he made his way over to the oak. "Hello there!" He said in a chirpy, masculine voice. "What're you guys doing out in the rain? I'm Chumujingxin Fengbao!" Zuko and Katara sent one another perplexed looks at his incredibly long name as Fengbao made his way closer to them. Within seconds, he had seated his sopping wet self on the grass beside Katara.

"Hello, Chumujingxin Fengbao," Katara said in her usual sweet voice, surprised that she actually remembered his name. "I'm Xue Zhen. The guy beside me is my boyfriend, Jie Li." Katara only took a vague notice of the light pink that dusted Zuko's cheeks at the mention of him being her boyfriend. "We're travelers, heading through Cha to get to Ba Sing Se; we have family there." Zuko wasn't sure if all of that was a flat out lie; they were definitely not returning to Ba Sing Se, but maybe she was using Zuko's uncle as a reason to go there in the first place.

"Pleasure to meet you, Fengbao," Zuko nodded curtly towards the Earth Kingdom native. He smiled slightly in Zuko's direction, and turned back to Katara.

"Why are you guys staying out in this storm?" He asked cautiously.

"We're waiting it out someplace that's at least a little dry," Katara explained. "Once the weather clears a little, we'll be able to continue traveling." Zuko knew _that_ was a boldface lie; they could just as easily be traveling under Katara's waterbending shield.

"Why don't you two come back to my place?" Fengbao asked with a radiant smile. "We _were_ about to have dinner, and there's always enough left over for at least two people."

Zuko and Katara looked at each other with cautious eyes. Katara's expression asked _what should I do?_, while Zuko's face answered, _whatever you think is best; you're the good liar. _"We'd be honored," Katara answered with a smile that couldn't be described as fake or genuine. She stood, and held out a hand to help Zuko stand as well.

Fengbao beamed. "Come on then!" He held out a hand and helped Katara up as Zuko stood by himself. Zuko and Katara followed Fengbao away from the main path, deeper into the forest. Katara could feel Zuko's body temperature rise beside her; he was cautious, worried, curious as to why this Fengbao boy was so nice. Katara, biting her lip, worried about her next action, placed her hand on Zuko's arm. His head snapped in her direction, wide amber eyes boring into hers. _It'll be fine_, Katara's eyes told him, and she squeezed his forearm in reassurance. _And if it's not, we can get out of it_. The small smile the firebender gave her made the waterbender's heart leap in a way that was foreign, but certainly pleasurable. _Could it be..._she shook her head wildly. _No, that's not it at all._

By the time she looked up from her thoughts, she realized that Fengbao had brought them to a small, modest house. It wasn't as big as some of the places in Ba Sing Se, but it wasn't a tiny hut; it was just right, like almost everything in Mu Cai and its outskirts were. It looked like a home, and not a prison. Katara smiled as Fengbao opened the door, leading them inside.

The kitchen was decent, yet lacking in the latest cooking technology. Pots and pans were strung up on the walls with thick ropes, and there was a small basin underneath a water pipe as a makeshift sink. A furnace was in the corner, and a low table was in the room's center with pillows around it as seats. It radiated with the warmth of a wood fire, yet something seemed wrong about the place. An older woman (who was presumably Fengbao's mother) was setting dishes on the table when she noticed her son arrive with guests. As she straightened up, a lock of long, black hair fell into her face and she hastily swept it back. Although most of her hair was held up in a bun, there was still a good portion that fell back from the nape of her neck to sweep the floor with its tips. It was clear where Fengbao's own beautiful hair came from. Her thin lips upturned in a smile when she spoke. "Good evening, son; who are your guests?" She sent him a vague look, almost as if she was saying to notify her next time he brought home guests, but willed it away with a grin.

"Mom, meet Xue Zhen," Fengbao motioned towards Katara, "and Jie Li." He motioned towards Zuko. "They're travelers to Ba Sing Se; I offered to let them stay here until the rain passed." His mother nodded in understanding, and flicked her wrist in a way that bade them to sit down.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," she said with a grin, shaking both Zuko and Katara's hands as they sat. "I'm Chumujingxin Zhenmo, Fengbao's mother. But I'm sure that was an easy fact to gather," she chuckled. Once Fengbao, Katara, and Zuko were settled, Zhenmo placed small cups of water beside each of them, and filled their plates with honey-seasoned chicken and a bowl of egg drop soup; she soon fixed herself a plate and sat as well. As the four began to eat their meal in silence, Zhenmo decided to bring up some small talk. "So, why are you traveling to Ba Sing Se? Refugees?" she inquired.

"We're going to visit Li's uncle," Katara said with a sweet grin. "They haven't seen each other in a while, so we just decided one day to pack up and travel by foot." Zuko nodded in agreement with her tale.

"My uncle owns a tea shop in the upper ring," Zuko explained, almost smiling in satisfaction when both Zhenmo and Fengbao's eyebrows shot up. "I still haven't gotten around to introducting him to my girlfriend, either." He grabbed Katara's hand and looked at her lovingly-a glance she herself returned, but not without a blush; he let go only a few seconds later.

Zhenmo smiled. "I'm sure that he'll be happy to meet you, Zhen." Katara nodded a quick thanks and finished the remainder of her egg drop soup, surreptitiously, transferring the remainder of her chicken onto Zuko's plate when Zhenmo wasn't looking. Zuko looked at her questioningly, but her eyes said _I'm not much of a honey chicken eater._ He smiled lightly and grabbed her hand again, giving it a quick, affirming squeeze that made her turn pink; this behavior wasn't characteristic of the banished prince.

"Mom," Fengbao asked as he rose to put everyone's plates in the basin, "when's Dad going to be home?" Katara and Zuko noticed that Zhenmo seemed to look ten years older the moment her son mentioned a father figure. She put her elbow on the table, and rested her forehead in her palm.

"I don't know," she said with a sigh. Fengbao accepted her behavior wordlessly, causing the two benders to glance at each other; was this a common conversation between the two? Both looked puzzled, and looked to the Chumujingxins for answers-answers, though, that the family was unwilling to give.

Two hours later, night had fallen around the small house like a thick mist, the rain still pouring like a waterfall. Zuko and Katara gave up almost all hope of heading back out towards Cha that night and readily accepted Zhenmo's invitation for them to stay the night. They set up small futons in a back room that contained potting soil, remnants of broken, terracotta pots, and gardening tools. They laid their bedding side by side, just as Zhenmo and Fengbao would expect a serious couple to do. When they laid down and Zuko blew out the candle, darkness engulfed them, their only point of reference in the black abyss being the rain that tap danced away at the roof. Zuko muttered a quick goodnight before turning his back to Katara. While the firebender fell asleep quickly, the waterbender was restless; she looked up at what she assumed was the ceiling (in such darkness, it was hard to tell) and rubbed her eyes carefully, wincing when she put too much pressure on the almost-healed bruises around her eye sockets. She blinked twice-maybe three times-before deciding to close her eyes for some much-needed rest. When she finally felt sleep beginning to overtake her, the only thing she could remember was recognizing what was odd about the house-it was the smell.

It reeked of opium.

**A/N: Guess what? We have more names~**

**OC 2: This fun little guy is Chumujingxin Fengbao. "Chumujingxin," his family name, is a total mouthfull, and means "startling" in Chinese. His given name, "Fengbao," is a little less difficult to say than his family name, and is Chinese for "storm." Though this character will probably not show up much after the next chapter, his name IS a foreshadowing to future events in the story.**

**OC 3: Fengbao's mother is Chumujinxin Zhenmo. Since we already know what the family name means, this woman's given name is "Zhenmo." "Zhenmo" is the Chinese word for "tortured." This lady has been tortured mentally by her husband: this can be determined by ow she reacts to Fengbao asking about his father's whereabouts.**

**We're going to introduce OC 4 in the next chapter for a very brief appearance, and we'll also get re-acquainted with some older characters from the story's earlier chapters.**

**Enjoy, my lovers!**


	5. Arashi

Title: The Color Brown

Author: AishiteSubete

Rating: T

**Chapter Five: Arashi**

Zuko was the first to be jolted awake by the sound of a wooden door splintering; Katara was the next to wake when she heard Zhenmo's shriek, and an older man's voice asking, "why are you here?" The two benders jumped up, curious as to what in the world could be happening.

It was still raning outside when Zuko and Katara ran towards the direction of the commotion-the Chumujingxin family kitchen. The scene when they arrived was horrendous; the room was crawling with Dai Li agents. Fengbao was trying unsuccessfully to break free of the grip of the two agents who were holding him fast with their stone-gloved hands, while his mother, Zhenmo, was in the corner, her face in her arms. An older man with graying brown hair in a short braid was lying on the ground next to the overturned kitchen table, a Dai Li agent with long, braided black hair sitting on his waist, grabbing his collar viciously. "Why are you here?" the man-who could be presumed to be Fengbao's father-asked once more, his voice a pleading tone. The Dai Li agent slammed the man against the ground, causing Fengbao to shout out in rage.

"You know good and well why I'm here, you lowlife scum!" the agent growled, his eyes nothing but small, narrow slits. "You grow and sell opium in some of the largest quantities in the area. Did you think you could really produce _that_ much without us catching you some time or the other?" _That's why I thought I smelled opium last night_, Katara thought, the idea hitting her like a freight train. No wonder Zhenmo didn't seem to enjoy talking about her husband much: He was an opium dealer.

Once more, Katara could feel heat radiating off of Zuko; he was mad. The waterbender had half the mind to tell him to be careful with his temper, lest he do something he regret, but she kept it inside. The Dai Li agent on top of Fengbao's father hit the old man once again, and Zuko's fists clenched. Without thinking, he stepped out into the scene, his voice shouting, "Hey! Leave him alone!" When everyone looked up at the new arrival, all motion stopped, and they stared at him. With a well-restrained gasp of horror, Katara knew why.

Zuko had taken the bandages off of his face when he went to bed the night before, and hadn't put them on again after he woke up; his scar was showing proudly.

The Dai Li agent (whom the benders now recognized as Master Shi, an agent they had encountered the day before) let go of Mister Chumujingxin's collar, and looked at Zuko with a cocky smirk. "Well, well, we've learned something today; not only does Chumujingxin Wai produce opium, he also houses murderers." Zuko visibly tensed, his hand going up to feel the flesh of his scar, and Shi laughed. "Have you been covering it up all this time?" There was no response from the firebender. "So you've been in disguise. What do they call you?" Once more, the prince refused to answer. Shi narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Alright, boys; we're going to take this one in. Be cautious: we think he's a firebender."

Katara watched in horror as a Dai Li agent used his stone gloves to bind Zuko's wrists together, escorting him to the wall that Fengbao had recently been bound to after Zuko's arrival. The agent then removed the stone from Zuko's wrists, and bended the earth from the wall around his arms like a trap. Zhenmo was sobbing audibly now; not only was her husband finally getting caught for his crooked business, but a guest she had taken into her home was a murderer. Katara felt bad for the woman, and ran to her, embracing her in a comforting hug.

"We have one of two options for this one," Shi smiled dangerously, pacing back and forth in front of Zuko. "We can take him back to Ba Sing Se and let the Earth King deal with him however he pleases, or we can execute him right now." The bender stomped on the ground, a long, jagged stone rising from the floor to meet his open hand. "What should we do, boys? Should we take care of him quickly and cleanly, or should we splatter his brains on the wall?" Another stomp of his foot and a larger, more wicked earth stone rose to levitate in front of Zuko's face. Katara's breath hitched in panic as Zhenmo's sobs grew louder and higher in pitch. The waterbender looked for anything she could find, and noticed that Zhenmo had left the tap on the water faucet dripping ever so slightly-it was still on, and there was water standing in the basin. She stood slowly, unnoticeably, and walked towards the basin, tapping the faucet knob gently to increase the water flow. As the water trickled out of the spout, nobody seem to notice-and that was good for Katara.

"Let's go for something more...violent," a short, shifty agent on Shi's right said with a bloodthirsty grin. "After all, he _did_ kill that slave trader and those earthbenders in very violent fashions. We still haven't identified the bones of the benders." Shi returned the man's smile, and the jagged, knife-like rock dropped to the ground to fuse back with the earth. He moved the larger boulder slowly, carefully, in front of Zuko's face, close enough that the firebender could smell the earthy scent of soil.

"I won't let you!"

The Dai Li agents looked towards the harmless teenage girl who stood beside the water basin in her green martial artist's dress. Her blue eyes were set in a determined look, but she was unarmed; the earthbenders barely saw her as a threat, and just laughed. "What can _you_ do, little girl?" Shi laughed. "You can't bend, you can't fight."

"I'll show you _can't bend_," she snarled animalistically. Shi froze in shock when he heard the sound of moving water, and jumped back when he watched a blade of water slice his stone into pieces. The waterbender approached him dangerously, water surrounding her body in a ring. She advanced in a crouched battle stance, her eyes darting anxiously between the benders, ready to make her next move if necessary. The Dai Li watched her, some unwilling to move, some more than willing to get out-and fast.

"The _waterbender_," Shi breathed, looking at Katara in amazement. "So Chumujingxin Wai housed both murderers; interesting interesting..." He chuckled darkly.

"You're going to free Zuko and Fengbao, and you and your agents are going to leave this house-do you understand?" Ice blue eyes glared into Shi's own dark, abyss-like ones, proving the intensity of her words. Shi did nothing but laugh, and sunk into a battle stance.

"Do you want to fight, little girl?" Shi laughed. "Do you? Come here, and I'll show you a fight." Katara's arms shot from their comfortable stance in front of her to her waist and back to her chest like a rocket, a stream of water shooting past Shi's head-clearly a missed target. The earthbender's laughter rose in volume as Katara wrinkled her brow in frustration. Shi summoned a boulder from the ground as though it was second nature, and Katara dodged it with simplicity, hitting the ground with a wide water blade-what appeared to be another missed target.

It wasn't soon before long that Katara got a good hit in-a jet of water straight to the proud earthbender's chest. He staggered back from the force, his back bracing against the wall he just hit. Katara landed a few more well-placed hits-to the legs, the arms, and the neck-and breathed outward ever so slowly, using her hands as a way to spread the cool, almost icy air to the water she had placed on the ground and on Shi's body. The earthbender struggled fruitlessly against the frozen bonds, making vain attempts to be set free. The waterbender leaned on the wall closer to him, her face mere centimeters away from his.

"Who's the one that _can't bend_ now, Master Shi?" The Dai Li agent could feel the ice on her breath, and tried to cower away, lest she try anything else.

"MEN! NOW! FINISH HER!" Shi yelled, trying to get his men to attack the young waterbender while her guard was sufficiently dropped. But Katara only smirked, and the earthbender remembered when her first attack missed him-the water was to wash away the dirt bonds that kept her firebender-Zuko-and that Chumujingxin Fengbao boy bound to the wall. His fleet of three other agents were lying hopelessly on the ground, incapacitated by the hands of Zuko, the banished fire prince. (Fengbao had went to his mother after he was freed).

"It sucks for you that they're all down," Katara laughed, taking her weight away from the wall and walking back towards her firebender. "Nice work, Zuko; we took care of them rather easily for two teenagers." Zuko grinned at how familiar she spoke with him.

"What now?" Zuko asked cautiously, looking at the unconscious Dai Li agents strew across the floor and their leader iced to the wall. "Should we just leave? Fengbao, Zhenmo, and Wai have already left. There's no reason for us to stay." Katara nodded, and the two went to the room where they slept to gather their other belongings.

As Katara tied her long, brown hair back into a ponytail, Zuko buttoned his deep green vest and walked closer to her. "Hey, Katara?" She looked up at him, her blue eyes shining with the adrenaline of a girl who had just fought for the first time in a long time. "Yeah?" She answered him sweetly. He didn't know what he had intended and she didn't know what he was doing, when Zuko leaned in and pressed his lips delicately to her forehead. "Thank you for saving me back there; my head would have been a smear on that wall if it weren't for you." Katara blushed a deep pink at the overly-sweet actions of the firebender; she felt her head getting a little hotter, and she blamed him for it.

"You're welcome," she said sheepishly, moving to pack the rest of her belongings into her bag, then to tie a water flask around her waist. "It was nothing, really. It just needed to be done." As the two benders left the Chumujingxin house without as much as a word to the family who wept in the backyard, they realized that this fight-this moment-drastically changed the dynamic of their relationship, and changed the destiny that said relationship was supposed to have had. They would no longer be enemies, no matter how hard they tried; that era was gone, that ship had long since sailed.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Another name! Chumujingxin Wai is the father of the Chumujingxin family. "Wai" is the Chinese word for "crooked," and is this character's given name. I chose it because of his dealings with illegal substances. A little family history on Wai is that this name was given to him because he was born cross-eyed; his parents saw fit to name him "Wai" after that feature.**


	6. Mako

Title: The Color Brown

Author: AishiteSubete

Rating: T

**Chapter Six: Mako**

The Dai Li agents that Zuko and Katara had left incapacitated at the Chumujingxin home weren't even a thought on their minds as they approached the gates of Cha. A rickety-looking torii gate towered over the main path, the character for "Cha" faintly inscribed at its height. The benders didn't pay attention to that or to the other little details surrounding the posts (such as the birds making their nests between the two horizontal beams, or the butterfly that had landed beside them) as they walked in to the village.

Zuko's scars were covered once more by the white linen bandages he had gotten back in Mu Cai. When he touched them, he wondered why it seemed like he and Katara were traveling back and forth on the same distance; maybe it was because they were. In the last two days, they had only been in between Cha and Mu Cai; to Zuko, it was almost as though they had done nothing but find trouble.

Little did he know that there was more to be found.

Though the firebender kept his pace, he was unaware that his waterbender had disappeared from her spot at his right hand. He moved forward a few more feet before he realized that her presence was gone and whirled around to find her hugging a small boy. He exhaled in relief; that was much better than the alternative he had had in mind. He shoved the image of Katara being captured by the Dai Li out of his mind as he approached the waterbender and the boy. Katara released her hold on the child to look at Zuko.

"Zuko, this is Mako." The prince looked at the little boy, awestruck by how small he really was up close; the fact that he looked as though he was being treated poorly by the people he had been sold to was not a surprise to him. He crouched down, keeping a smile on his half-bandaged face.

"Hello there," Zuko said, ruffling the boy's hair affectionately. "I'm Zuko, one of Katara's friends." He saw the boy smile at him, his moss-green eyes beginning to study him.

"Why do you have that linen on your face?" Mako asked, pointing delicately to the bandages that covered Zuko's scar. "Did someone hurt you? How did you get it?"

Zuko paused for a moment, and Katara looked at him in surprise; she wasn't sure what he was going to say. "I got it fighting firebenders," Zuko said solemnly, and Mako looked at him with wide-eyed, childish innocence; his jaw dropped a little, too, causing Zuko to smile. In the time he spent in Ba Sing Se, he told this story many times to nosy customers who came in and stayed far too long for his liking. From all of them, he garnered some sort of sympathy, and a respect to boot-yet they didn't know that just because he said he was fighting firebenders-it _didn't_ mean that he was fighting the Fire Nation itself. Yet the feeling of deep awe he recieved from Mako, the small child who also believed the false inference, made Zuko wish that he really had fought the Fire Nation.

"Wow, mister," Mako said quietly, his mossy eyes still as big as dinner plates. "You must be really strong!" He stood back from Zuko and Katara a little, sinking into a familiar stance. "I can be strong, too! I'm learning how to earthbend!" With a small stamp of his foot, a small rock rose from the ground to meet his clenched fist; when he tried to move it, it crumbled to dust. "I still have a long way to go." When the smaller boy turned his focus back to his earthbending, Zuko and Katara looked at each other, panicked-_what would happen when his owner discovers his abilities?_

The two of them both knew the typical rule about benders as slaves; to buy a slave that you knew was a bender was always a risky move (many have escaped, or killed their masters), but to be able to keep them and say that they are your slave was always a very big status symbol. But it was a different story if the owner discovered that their slave had undisclosed bending abilities; oftentimes, it meant death for the slave-and Zuko and Katara weren't willing to potentially give that fate to Mako.

They should have known it was a potentially lethal decision, stealing a slave at the entrance of a marketplace, but at this moment, Zuko and Katara didn't care. Mako was an earthbender, and they didn't know how his master would deal with him when she discovered his talents. So the two benders approached Mako, and Katara grabbed his small, dust-covered hand. She beckoned him to follow her, which she did. The three benders walked away from the marketplace, deciding to take a bypass around Cha to the main path on the other side. They wouldn't get caught-or so they had hoped.

It was a woman in a pink furisode, blond hair swept up into an elegant bun, that shouted, "My son! My son!" She ran, tugging earnestly on the sleeves of a Dai Li agent, her shriek still audible as the three benders took the less-traveled path behind the bushes. "A woman with tan skin and long brown hair took my son!" she cried. The calm, soothing voice of the Dai Li agent was a little less audible to Zuko and Katara. "It's okay, ma'am. What was she wearing?" "A green martial artist's dress!" the woman responded hysterically. There was silence after that, and it was understood that the Dai Li agent knew exactly who they were looking for.

"Run," Zuko breathed, and the benders took off in a panic. It was an obvious move, a rustling in the bushes that didn't go unlooked by the Dai Li agent. Within moments, Katara could feel the presence of another bender hot on their trail. She nudged her firebender, who was carrying Mako, to run faster, farther away from the earthbender that was trying to capture them.

"Take care of Mako," Katara commanded. "I'll stay behind you and make sure that you won't get attacked." Zuko nodded and watched-almost apprehensively-as Katara fell behind him, one hand on her water flask to remove the cork in a hurry if need be. The firebender could feel his body temperature rising in anxiousness, and wondered if little Mako could feel it, too; he hoped not. They ran continually, hoping to reach the outskirts of Cha before the Dai Li agent on their trail caught them.

But Zuko felt Katara's cool, water-like presence fall away, and he stopped in his tracks to turn around to see if she was there; true to his thought, she was gone. "Katara!" He shouted, panicked. "Katara!"

Then, her presence was back, accompained with another one: one that was firm and smooth as stone. It was Dai Li agent. Zuko turned again to face Katara and her captor-and was astounded at the agent. It was Hui Meng.

"So, I take it that Xue Zhen isn't a real person at all." Hui had Katara's wrists held fast in his stone gloves, and he was looking at Zuko and Mako interestedly. "I take it that you're not Jie Li either, for that matter." Zuko narrowed his eyes, and sat Mako down.

"Release Katara," he said, pulling a sharp dagger out of his provision bag. "Release Katara, and you won't get hurt." Hui Meng laughed-it was a much different sound than the laughter Katara had heard from him during their first meeting. Instead of low and charming, it was louder and much more bitter and animalistic. It worried Katara for Zuko's saftey-then made her worry for her own when she felt the rocks around her wrists tighten painfully.

"_I_ won't get hurt?" Hui's laughter continued as he watched Zuko's eyes widen at the treatment he was showing Katara. "_I'd _be worrying about your little bender girl." The firebender was at a loss. He held Mako's hand tightly and watched as Hui began to advance upon them. "Give me the boy. The both of you are under arrest for kidnapping and presumably murder-your girl is the waterbender we've been searching for."

When Hui took another step closer, Zuko pressed the small boy closer to his body, and put the blade of a dagger against Mako's neck. "Come one step closer and Mako dies."

The air was silent and thick, heavy-laden with tension. Hui stood between the bound Katara and the Zuko who was threatening to put an end to the small boy named Mako. "Do you know what you're doing?" Hui Meng asked with worry in his voice. "You're willing to trade a life-the life of Ku Mei's son-for a criminal." Zuko knew immediately who Ku Mei was; she was Mako's owner.

"Do you really believe that Mako is Ku Mei's son?" Zuko asked with a disgusted snarl in his voice. "They look nothing alike and have no similarities. She bought Mako the day that the slave trader died. Mako is not Ku Mei's son-he's her _slave_." Hui's eyes widened, and he looked at Zuko and Mako curiously. He was unsure of the man's motives; was he trying to save Mako, or was he trying to harm him?

"Jie Li," Hui said, advancing on Zuko and Mako, "you've still kidnapped a child. In slavery or not, that still makes you a criminal. Let go of the boy and come quietly." Hui stepped closer still. Zuko's visible eye narrowed, and with the quick reflexed of a cobra, he slid the blade across Mako's neck. Yet unbeknownst to Katara or Hui, the cut was shallow and entirely non-lethal. The small boy fell to the ground, his neck crying red, and Hui, panicked, let the stone gloves fall from Katara's wrists as he went to attend to the boy.

"Katara!" he shouted, running to her side. At the sight of the blade cutting a long gash in Mako's throat, Katara had fallen to the ground, weeping for the boy she was unable to save. "Oh, Katara, are you okay?" He put an arm around her shoulder, and she batted it off effortlessly.

"How _dare_ you?" she screamed. "How _dare _you take an innocent life like that? What has he done to hurt you? Nothing! Why would you barter his life for mine?" She turned from him, and ran. He watched her run away, his amber eyes glazed over to hide his shattered soul.

"Katara!" he shouted to the empty air in front of him. "Katara, I love you! I'm sorry!" And he took off after her, not listening to the angry shouts of Hui Meng beind him. He didn't care about his status as a banished prince, as a murderer, or as a kidnapper: All he cared about was finding Katara and making things right before it was too late.

Then he saw the air bison swoop from the sky to the low forests of the Earth Kingdom, and he knew he had lost his chance for good.


	7. Epilogue: Ai

Title: The Color Brown

Author: AishiteSubete

Rating: T

**Epilogue: Ai**

It had been about six years since Katara had been captured by Earth Kingdom slave traders and sold to her mortal enemy, Zuko, the banished prince of the Fire Nation. It had been about six years since she realized that she was falling in love with said prince, and it had been about six years since she watched him kill a small boy, all to ensure her safety. Even after Zuko joined the Gaang, even after he had taken her to the man who killed her mother, even after he had taken a lightning bolt to the chest for her, Katara wasn't sure exactly how much she should trust the now Fire Ambassador.

As the Ambassador from the Southern Water Tribe, Katara lived in Republic City-a town set up between the Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, Southern Water Tribe, and the remnants of the Air Nomads. Also living with her was Toph, the Ambassador from the Earth Kingdom, Suki, the Ambassador from Kiyoshi Island, Sokka, the Ambassador from the Norther Water Tribe, and sometimes Aang-not only the Ambassador from the Air Nomads, but also the sole survivor of his race, charged with re-populating the airbenders.

But the most surprising of these was Zuko; after three years of being the Fire Lord, he gave the title up to his Uncle, Iroh, seeing that the older man would be a better fit for the nation than he. Zuko still kept his spot as Crown Prince, and also became the Ambassador from the Fire Nation. He lived peacefully with Katara, Suki, Sokka, and Toph in Republic City's Ambassador building. However, it wasn't as if things weren't awkward at moments. Whever Aang was around, there was some sort of tense air between he and Katara, the latter of whom he had broken up with to re-populate his nation.

It was right before dinner on a Thursday night when Zuko arrived into Katara's room entirely unannounced. She was putting her hair up in a traditional Water Tribe hairstyle, a brown tunic adorning her body. Her eyes widened when she saw Zuko step into her room from the reflection in the mirror. "And to what do I owe this unnanounced visit?" she asked somewhat icily.

Zuko continued to walk into her room and sat comfortably on her bed. "They found my mother," he said quietly, and Katara's face evolved into one of pure happiness. She jumped up from her seat and attacked Zuko in a hug. "I'm so happy for you Zuko," she said, a smile on your face.

"I brought her for dinner tonight," Zuko said quietly. "I also brought Mako." Katara's face morphed into a mask of pure shock, almost as if she didn't understand what Zuko was saying.

"Pardon?"

"Mako never died; I made it look as though he did so Hui would set you free. Mako-and Hui for that matter-are both here tonight," Zuko explained. "After you ran off, I spoke with Hui. He decided that he would take Mako in and raise him well-into an powerful earth bender. Mako is twelve now." Katara smiled joyously, and buried her face in Zuko's robes as a hug; he could feel the gratitude radiating off of her, and he willingly took her into his arms.

"Oh, and Katara?" She looked up at him curiously. The firebender brushed a stroke of loose brown hair out of her face, and leaned down to capture her lips in an emotional kiss. She responded in shock, but still put her arms around his slender neck. When they broke apart, she looked at him, then down to her brown dress.

"I remembered...you once told me that brown wasn't my color." She grinned, and he smiled back to his own embarrassment. "Step out of the room, and I'll change into somethig more fitting so we can go to dinner. Together." He smiled sheepishly and stepped out of her room.

Brown really _wasn't_ her color, and he was glad that telling her that didn't come back to bite him in the rear.


End file.
